For the past 120 years, Petri Plumbing (under one name or another) has thrived in one of New York City's famous boroughs, Brooklyn. There it has quietly and successfully comforted homeowners and renters with thoughtful, skillful service — often in emergency situations and always in timely fashion.
So, over the past century, while terrorists have horrifically dropped skyscrapers, city administrations and political leaders have risen and fallen, Yankees and Knicks and Rangers teams have won and lost, Petri plumbers have kept toilets flushing, fixed leaking waterlines and restored peace of mind to anxious people in their everyday crises at home.
“I think New York City is the greatest place to live and work,” says Christopher Petri, operations manager and the latest generation of the Petri family to help guide the company. Along with his father, Michael Petri, company owner, he is girding the old company for a period of expansion that belies its age. Hundred-and-twenty-year-old companies are expected to settle in and live off their reputations, not prepare to sprint further ahead into the 21st century.
Petri reflects the energy he finds in the city. He exults in its novelty. “Sometimes in the suburbs, you have a whole tract of similar houses. You walk into one house and the floor plan is just like the one next door. New York City is such an old city. You open up a wall and you never know what you are going to find. Completely different pipe and plumbing systems are there. There are no cookie-cutter designs. A lot of people are intimidated by that. I would just say, it’s interesting and fun to live and work in the city.”
Unpredictability aside, Petri is motivated to help build the family business into a newer version of itself because of a constant. “Pipes don’t change,” he says, simply. Indeed, whatever else is going on, the running of water to toilet and sink, the carrying away of wastewater and the heating and cooling of living areas require the attention of artisan trades workers.
Buoyed by such recurring needs of clients across New York City, Petri Plumbing is gearing up to be there for them come what may.
Read more about Petri Plumbing in the June 2026 issue of Plumber magazine.
